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I have not posted in forever and this is why. I have been buying EVERYTHING to finish out the house. And unfortunately no one could do this but me. I mostly knew what I wanted and went on a search to find. From the looks here Home Depot and Lowes topped that list followed closing by Lamps Plus. But also, Amazon and Vintage Tub and Bath were great places to find what I needed (aka wanted). Also, I am a sucker for Pottery Barn. I just like the look. Oh yeah, and I threw in the HEB receipt because its the only place I could find REGULAR CLEAR light bulbs...who would have know! I can not wait to post the finished product. Floors and base boards this week and the painters return next week to paint the base boards and touch everything up. Almost done.

I don't like White Dove. I don't hate it, I just don't like it as much as I had hoped I would. And after my hours and hours of online research and long conversations with my very tasteful friends I am definitely in the minority when it comes to the infamous White Dove.

I am not sure if you are supposed to capitalize names of paints. But, it is White Dove right?

Ok, so with that being said I am still hoping the secret to White Dove comes after the floors are laid, electric lighting is in place, counter tops installed, back splash is done etc etc.

This post may be a little long winded. For starters I am super excited that we have our "driveway" in. If you call it a driveway. I prefer "our road". It should be OURS as much as it cost. Geez. And not just the rock. Oncor should be able to give out nice Christmas bonuses this year for what we had to pay to run the electricity back to the house.

So the rain that is coming this weekend will not prevent anyone from working on the house. And after it rains I can not wait to wash my car! Of course from here on out I realize I will never have crisp black tires again...unless I don't go home for a few days. To me its like a passage of some sort. We traded cement paved roads for a little dust and rock. We will forever have that gray dust line that coats the edge of your tires.

The Front﻿

Notice the pretty S curves all the way down.

Almost there (keep'em coming)﻿

You can see the peak of our house behind these Mesquites. Almost there.﻿

And here we are. All roads lead home.﻿

I love coming to the house and just walking around. I usually (okay always) have a list to go over or someone to meet. But when they leave I take a few minutes to breath it all in. This is it. Our home. Our life. What I wanted. And that's where I get a little confused.

Yes, this is exactly what I wanted. (Well mostly...if that dirty little word budget didn't exist I can only imagine the overwhelming decisions). But its good. Budget. I am not trying to have the best of the best. By far we are blessed and have more then we need. But I want limitations. My purpose was never to be glitzy. My purpose was never to be showy. My purpose was to change how we were doing things. And we are so not there yet. Its slow. Its gradual. And I am not patient. But I have a vision. And its no different then any other person's vision. It is not something new and undiscovered. Its taking things back to basics. Putting first things first.

Life is a long and winding road. When you put your faith in front of you and accept all the S curves that come you actually find out they lead to something great. And not only do they lead to something great but the view along the way is peaceful and tranquil.

Yesterday my youngest and I walked from the house to the front of the property. She stopped every few feet to pick up a rock or grab some dirt or touch a leaf on a tree. It was one of the most relaxing things I had done in a long time. You could hear a little road noise but other than that, nothing. I took a deep breath, thanked God for making this happen, and watched my almost 2 year old chunk rocks.

In a nutshell that is about all I have to say. PAINT. I have been studying it for days now. Can't sleep without dreaming (or nightmaring) about paint. Ridiculous.

So to keep from sounding to negative I have definitely narrowed down my choices. And I am really excited to have a white kitchen.

front runner = BM White Dove
close 2nd= BM Simply White

maybe = SW Divine White

Oh but I am not done yet. Still have 2 samples waiting for me at SW. The Divine White and a 50/50 mix of BM White Dove and BM Glacier White.

My kitchen looks like a spotted cow (a white on white spotted cow).

I have tried SW Snowbound, SW Pure White, SW Westhighland White, BM Cloud White...and a few others that I instantly weeded out and have forgotten their names.

Whites and I have become pretty close lately. But at the end of the day I have to be sure. This will be kitchen cabinet color as well as all doors and trim through the whole house, stairs, mantel. No stain. I am sure you understand. Its an expensive mistake to mess this up!

Good news...the downstairs bath, and all kids rooms are chosen.

This White paint...its an animal. By this time next week it will be all over and I will have to live with my decision. And I am SOOO ready for that.

Here are some pics of our progress!
The sheet rock has been installed and is tape/bedded/and textured. To keep in line with our budget we went with a very light orange peel. Best choice when you want the untextured look but do not have the budget for the walls to be hand sanded.

I am about ready to throw in the towel! I have pinned and pinned and googled and googled until I'm blue (or white) in the face. I need a classic white paint color for the outside of the house and the inside trim and kitchen cabinets. I do not want beige or cream nor do I want too bright of a white that it has blue undertones. Just a nice clean crisp white. Please help!!

(feel free to leave a comment or send a private message via our facebook page if you have any suggestions).

We knew when we bought this land that we had our work "CUT" out for us. We loved all the trees but they pretty much all need some trimming up. Here is a before and after picture of Joe's hard work last weekend. You'll also notice how the house is coming along in the background. I have to say I am giddy with excitement to actually walk through each room and really picture us there.

Earlier that day I had felt of my one year old's head. Thought she had a little scab maybe from a mosquito bite the weekend before (I know...bad mom). That evening at the grocery store I felt her head again as she sat in the shopping cart. Same scab. Well, this time I titled her head and looked. OMG. Legs moved. Gross. Freak out. Call mom. Mom calls grandma. Put a match to it. No wait, rub oil on it. Go to the pharmacy and ask for drops. OK. Deal. I left isle 9 and headed straight to the pharmacy. After I asked for the "drops", the man and lady behind the counter chuckled and I wheeled away grabbing for my phone to google tick removal. For about 3 seconds I seriously contemplated leaving my basket full of groceries and heading out the door to get the tick removed. If it wasn't for running into my aunt (my moms sister who also grew up in the country) I would have. She calmly said it was no big deal and that they (her and her 4 siblings) got them all the time. Umm, ok.

I don't think I have ever finished shopping so fast in my life. I barely got the groceries in the house and went straight for the tweezers. And the jar filled with alcohol. (My grandma said to keep the tick in the jar of alcohol just in case any symptoms came up in my youngest... OK... thanks grandma...that helps.)

Pulled once, nothing. That little gross creature had a hold on my baby's head. Pulled harder and ta-da. Tick went straight into the alcohol and I poured more on top of him and WATCHED HIM DIE.

A washstand or basin stand is a piece of furniture consisting of a small table or cabinet, usually supported on three or four legs, and most commonly made of mahogany, walnut, or rosewood, and made for holding a wash basin and water pitcher. The smaller varieties were used for rose-water ablutions, or for hair-powdering. The larger ones, which possessed receptacles for soap-dishes, were the predecessors of the modern bathroom wash basin, or sink. Both varieties, often of very elegant form, were in extensive use throughout a large part of the 18th century and early-19th century, eventually disappearing with the advent of modern indoor plumbing.[

This is the one I bought for $40 from a "haul off" store. Wasn't sure if the guy selling it was pulling my leg but I purchased it anyway. He told me a 94 year old man had them pick it up. I was happy to know it really was a washstand after looking at them online. Honestly, I couldn't imagine it could be anything else. When you put a bowl on it its the perfect height.

﻿

Not quite sure where it will go (it is pretty short, shorter than it appears) and if I will just clean it up or paint it but the history behind it is pretty neat.

Does it get any better than this? Doing what we love and lovin what we do.....

Joe was able to make a ton of headway with a small little tractor. We are probably breaking every safety warning in the book but the kids were too excited about riding on the tractor. Kate even joined in the fun.

The real person in charge.

Burn piles, burn piles, and more burn piles. We still are not cutting down any trees except those to make the road to the house and the actual house site. Also, any trees that are already dead. The majority of this burn pile is trees that we trimmed up. Its amazing the progress we have made.

We did stop and take a little break, dug a hole, built a fire, and roasted wienies. YUM!﻿

This concrete horse was left on the property by the previous owners. She needs a little touch up work. Ava is super excited about getting her all fixed up.﻿

In our case someone else's trash is not our treasure. It is a LOT of our hard work. A mobile home used to sit at the front of our land next to the trees below. I am thinking the owners of this mobile home did not have trash cans or did not like to use them. There was water bottles, beer bottles, food cans, etc all over the place in this area. When they moved the mobile home they did not bother taking their trash with them. Guess they were never big into Girl Scouts..."always leave a place cleaner then you found it". We've picked it up and loaded it on a trailer for the dump. The trees also need some shaping up so we are in the process of doing that too.

Off to the left is an inset next to the creek. I see a picnic table and a fire pit in its near future...and SMORES! And once we have electricity I plan to string a few clear globe lights in the trees. I'll get pictures of the inset the next time I am there. It will be something we can enjoy on the property while the house is coming along.